Download Pidgin 2.4.2

A few days ago version 2.4.2 of Pidgin was released. Previously known as Gaim, this multi-protocol instant messaging program works with the networks of AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, irc, Novell Groupwise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, Simple and Zephyr. The software is available for Windows and Linux and can be easily integrated into Gnome 2 and KDE 3.1. For Mac OS X users, there’s Adium. Pidgin is open source and is released under version 2 of the gpl license. The changelog for this release shows the following changes:

libpurple

• In MySpaceIM, messages from spambots are discarded (Justin Williams)
• Strip mIRC formatting codes from quit and part messages.
• IRC now displays ban lists in-channel for joined channels.
• Fixed a bug where the list of loaded plugins would get removed when switching between different operating systems.
• Fix reception of IRC PART without a part message on Undernet (fixes a problem with litter in the channel user list).
• IRC no longer crashes on /list on servers which erroneously omit RPL_LISTSTART.
• Update the NetworkManager support to use D-Bus directly, instead of libnm-glib. Hopefully it’s stable now. It will now compile by default if you have D-Bus support and NetworkManager.h. (Elliott Sales de Andrade)
• MSN buddy list synchronization is now more forgiving, only asking about buddies who have disappeared completely from the server list and not those that have simply moved groups.
• IRC will now try to append 1-9 to your nick if it is in use, instead of substituting the last character with 1-9 where possible.
• Bonjour buddies will be saved persistently if they’re moved out of the “Bonjour” group. (Eion Robb)

Pidgin

• The typing notification in the conversation history can be disabled or customized (font, color etc.) in .gtkrc-2.0.
• Added a plugin (not installed by default) which adds a Send button back to the conversation window. People without physical keyboards have a hard time with the lack of the button.
• Clicking on the buddy icon in the conversation window toggles the size of the icon between small and large.
• The settings of a chat (eg Handle in an XMPP chat, or Exchange in an AIM chat) can be edited from its context menu in the buddy list.
• Add a “Present conversation window” preference to the Message Notification plugin; the “Raise conversation window” option does not unminimize windows or draw attention to them when they are on other workspaces–the “Present” option should.
• Add a preference to set Escape as the keyboard shortcut for closing the conversation window.
• Add an option in the context menu to disable smileys in the selected text in the conversation history/log viewer. This should help people who regularly paste code in conversations.
• Add a preference to choose the minimum size of the text input area in lines.
• Moved the “Local alias” field in the Modify Account dialog to be below the “User Options” heading on the “Basic” tab.
• Number of room occupants is now shown in chat tooltips where possible

General

• The configure script now dies on more absent dependencies. The –disable-xxx arguments to configure can be used to bypass unnecessary dependencies. This will also cause the configure script to die if an –enable-xxx option is used and the dependencies it requires are missing.
• The Evolution integration plugin must now be explicitly enabled. Use the –enable-gevolution argument to configure to enable it.
• The Contact Availability Prediction plugin must now be explicitly enabled. Use the –enable-cap argument to configure to enable it.

Finch

• New default binding ctrl+x to open context menus.
• Menu triggers and other bindings will no longer conflict.
• Middle click pastes the internal clipboard (when mouse support is enabled).

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